This is the spiritual journey of me, Eccles, my big brother Bosco, and my Grate-Anti Moly. Eccles is saved, not sure about Bosco, and we've got real problems with Anti.

This is me, Eccles

This is me, Eccles

Saturday, 5 July 2014

Who invented Giles Fraser?

Leading satirical religious bloggers were disputing today over the
origin of the Giles Fraser trope (or do I mean "meme"?). This is a comic creation
that has been seen in many places, often in the form of a Church of
England priest who promotes secular socialism as Christianity.

Pull the tassel and his head lights up.

This blog denies any responsibility for the Giles Fraser idea, but
here are some possible suspects.

Standing on my head
by Fr Dwight Longenecker. Was this the origin of the "Christ would have
approved of same-sex marriage" joke?

The Beaker folk
of Husborne Crawley by Archdruid Eileen. Could she have
invented the "I don't object to suicide on religious grounds, merely because
it is a tool of market capitalism" quip?

Linen on the Hedgerow by
Richard Collins. Surely nobody else could have come up with the
idea of a priest who sells his soul to the Guardian?

Dr Spaceley-Trellis.

One obvious ancestor of the Giles Fraser character is Peter Simple's
Dr Spaceley-Trellis, the go-ahead bishop of Bevindon, who regarded
Christ as a social worker, and was anxious to reject His miracles and
moral teaching. Another ancestor is probably Tolkien's character Fr Gollum, with his cries of "Bigotsess, I hatess them!"

... and I was wondering whether you could invite Fr Gollum onto Thought for the Day?

Of course the Catholics have their own comedy characters, some as
hilarious as Giles Fraser. We were thinking especially of
the brilliant Basil
Loftus, who is generally agreed to be an invention of
Dr Joseph Shaw.

In other Anglican news, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams,
has admitted to being strongly influenced by Buddhism. When he
runs out of socially aware prayers to say, a spot of navel-contemplation
keeps the archiepiscopal spirit fully nourished.

1 comment:

No offense intended to the Archdruid, but that phrase about so-called 'assisted suicide' being but a 'tool of market capitalism' could only have come from a man or Laurie Penny, who, remember, fought against that same market capitalism in the midst of the Occupy New York brigade during their storied battle with the city dragoons on Wall Street.

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